Even pizza can't cut it at this doomed Highland Park Village corner

Even pizza can't cut it at this doomed Highland Park Village corner

It's pizza out at Highland Park Village, with the closure of Five Creeks Tavern, which shut down quietly the last weekend in June.

Five Creeks Tavern opened in September 2015 with a menu of Neapolitan pizza and pasta, gelato, wine, beer, cocktails, and frozen Bellinis. The team behind it was Buddy Cramer and Ben Ralston, creators of Katy Trail Ice House, Katy Trail Ice House Outpost, and Bandito’s Tex-Mex.

Pizza has been one of the biggest and most consistently successful stories in Dallas dining in the past five years, so cuisine can't be blamed. "Our product was outstanding, but nobody came," Cramer says. "It was the best product I ever put out."

Other restaurants in the shopping center do well, from old-timers such as Mi Cocina and Cafe Pacific, to newer concepts such as Alberto Lombardi's buzzy Bistro 31.

The likelier culprit for Five Creeks' demise is the dark, gloomy cloud hanging over that location next to the Village Theatre. It has seen a number of concepts come and go, including Marquee Grill, Village Marquee Texas Grill & Bar, Village Kitchen, and Toko V.

Cramer says that the shopping center is looking at other concepts to fill in, but he won't be a part. "It's all very friendly with Highland Park Village, it just didn't work," he says.

His other concept, KT Burger, which he opened around the same time as Five Creeks, remains open. "KT Burger is still going strong," he says. "I guess burgers always win."